Fix For Pops and Cracks USBridge Signature?

[Mark Dirac]

Me too.   With my USBridge Sig I am hearing clicks when playing tracks faster than 48kHz. Every 10 to 20 seconds or so.

 

Last week I was playing the same tracks from a DigiOne Sig with no issues.

 

OS is Moode, DAC is "S2 Digital" by Pro-ject, broadband is 70Mbps, connected by ethernet, from Qobuz. I have tried changing "audio buffer size" from default to 65,535KB with no improvement.

 

I too wondered if it was the dodgy ethernet driver that Allo instruct needs upgrading (in their set-up instructions). But I have asked Allo about this and they respond (in a PM) 

 

"In allo supplied images and almost all players included Asix latest Ethernet driver.

In latest volumio OS only it is not included.

We are providing  the steps to update the Ethernet driver also."

 

which is a little ambiguous and puzzling, but which I reckon means I do not need to mess about with ethernet drivers.

 

What configuration setting should I check to solve the clicks please?

[Mark Dirac]

Thanks HCW. I am shocked to discover that so many people are complaining of clicks etc.  In ten years of DACs, I have never come across an example of this before. And this - the USBridge Sig - is explicitly intended to create "healthy" USB.

 

I have been trying to speed up (avoid) the support shuffle by listing things to check out. It's staggering that Allo doesn't offer some FAQs which include this - because if ever I heard of a "frequent" question, this is it.

• OS flaw
• inadequate OS
• driver flaw
• mismatch between OS and driver versions (how easy it would be for someone intelligent to make this a non-issue via a Google spreadsheet!)
• non-Allo PSU
• mis-configuration of settings
• DAC incompatibility
• Any other additions to this list anyone?

Allo suspect it might be my Qobuz feed, though I doubt this. But before we can proceed, I have to find some hi-res downloads and learn how to play them from a USB flash drive, in order to exclude Qobuz from the culprits.

 

At least my OS - Moode - seems to be well capable of doing the job properly. So I remain hopeful.

[Mark Dirac]

43 minutes ago, HelioCentricWorlds said:

I'm afraid that this is the price to be paid once one goes down the Rasp Pi rabbit hole

I suspect it may not be better for customers of some/many? of the expensive streaming products. Eg I looked into the first Kef wireless speakers, and I get the impression the digital side just didn't work in many cases.   I have a lovely DAC (Pro-Ject "S2 Digital"), but when it was first introduced the support from Pro-Ject was as bad as Allo's. It was comrade left channel here who liaised with Pro-Ject and the designer and managed to get some fixes released before Pro-Ject lost interest and moved on to their next launch.

[Mark Dirac]

 

3 minutes ago, HelioCentricWorlds said:

I have a hard time faulting the engineering in their products

Agreed. In between the occasional clicks, I am amazed at the performance of the hardware (even with "only" the Nirvana PSU).

[Mark Dirac]

9 minutes ago, Zauurx said:

I had some problems at startup

Thanks Z. Roughly how many months ago did you have those problems?

 

I ask because I get the impression that Allo and Asix and Moode have tried several solutions over the months. And, I believe, though with no evidence, with success.

[Mark Dirac]

Allo have provided a workaround to the issues I had of hearing clicks on my new USBridge. The workaround was to revert to an old version of Moode (or an old version of Allo's build of Moode?) - namely 4.14.92.  Now rock-solid. Lovely!

 

Further details:

• I tried both settings of Moode's "USB (UAC2) fix" - no difference. Can anyone tell me what this does?
• Clicks were worst at 192kHz and rare at 44.1kHz - hence clicks not being caused by mains-borne electricity-supply noise.
• The issue was manifest when playing from USB flash drive, as well as from Qobuz - hence issue not caused by ethernet, or broadband, or router.
• Qobuz plays fine to my DAC from Qobuz's win10 application - hence issue not caused by DAC or USB cable.
• I didn't experiment with Moode's "CPU governor" option. (I note on the workaround version 4.14.92 of Moode it is set to "performance".)
• A small minority of the clicks are in the recordings - even modern digital recordings such as "Venice Bitch" at 7:21, 7:32 and 8:34 (with both versions of Moode).
• Moode 4.14.92 even plays clickless for me when playing a 2L test track from USB flash drive at 352kHz.

Furthermore, I reckon, clicks aside, that my new USBridge sounds even better than with the Allo-supplied Moode version. Sounds rock-solid, to a pleasing extent. Although of course I accept that this could be a psychological artefact.

 

My DAC is "Pre Box S2 Digital" by Pro-Ject:   Pre Box S2 Digital – Pro-Ject Audio Systems     (XMOS and dual ESS9038)

 

@Audio_Allo - what is it about the latest version of Allo Moode that might be causing the clicks please?

[Mark Dirac]

I have installed the new (weeks old) moOde 7.0.1 - and the clicks is fixed!  moOde 7.0.1 incorporated Linux kernel 5.4.77-v7+ #1371      I imagine that something has been fixed in this kernel release? Or perhaps in moOde? Although I am sure moOde would have mentioned if they had found a fix to the "clicks & pops" bug, which has been discussed so much.

[Mark Dirac]

I am running the last moOde v6 release: 6.7.1 and it works perfectly. With Qobuz via BubbleUPnP and Radio Paradise. (I don't use LMS.)  Possibly because of its newer Linux kernel. I gave up with the next couple of moOde releases 7.0.1 and 7.1.0 - too buggy.